The present invention relates to electronic television program guides, and particularly to a method and apparatus for creating links to information that is common between a number of television programs or films that are broadcast as television programming.
Television programs are distributed to viewers by a variety of broadcasting methods. These methods include traditional analog broadcast television, digital broadcast television, cable television (both analog and digital), satellite broadcasting (both analog and digital) and other methods. Digital broadcast methods allow channels to be multiplexed and transmitted over a common transmission medium. Because television broadcasting systems may have hundreds of channels having vast amounts of programming content, there must be some mechanism for informing views of the content available on the various channels. Electronic television program guides have proven to be an effective means for providing channel content information.
Electronic television program guides (EPGs) have become quite popular in satellite and cable-based television systems. EPGs may contain program information such as program titles, program descriptions, lists of credits, etc. Program information may be presented in many ways. For example, program information may appear in multiple languages, in various lengths, and may be written for different audiences (e.g., adult vs. children).
Typical EPGs list a plurality of channel names or numbers in a vertical column along the left side of a television screen, and list a plurality of time slots in a horizontal row across the top of the television screen. At the intersection of each channel and time slot is a “cell” that typically displays the title of the program that is being shown on that channel at that time. Despite the increasing popularity of EPGs, there are many problems and inefficiencies with the current systems and methods for transmitting, receiving and displaying program guide data.
Presently, devices that receive EPG information do not maintain internal keyword tables or indices of data that identify data elements having common characteristics with other data elements. Additionally, present receivers and systems do not use such tables to display world-wide-web-type hyperlinks that allow users to quickly access related information. Rather, current systems require users to conduct searches for related information, or access screens that display groupings of information. Additionally, current systems do not provide an immediate indication of the availability of related information. Due to the increasing amount of information being sent in many television broadcasting systems, receiving devices that maintain keyword tables and display links to access related information would be very useful in helping to organize and access the vast quantity of transmitted information. Additionally, keyword tables may be used by receivers to aid users in entering data, by comparing partial user entries to the keyword tables, and completing the entry for the user. The use of keyword tables for entry completion helps eliminate the difficult and time consuming task of entering data with a remote control.